This was the week I met some of you in the Observer’s Top of the Park tent on Tuesday night, and you folks are as nice in person as in your e-mails! I brought my 3-year-old, whose first-ever buffet may just be unbeatable. The boy tucked into the hummus from Jerusalem Garden, sneaked extra chocolate chip cookies from eat into the back of the stroller, and even gave a bacon-wrapped date a try from the Pulpo Group’s Aventura Ann Arbor. He ate the whole thing – and mine, too.

Ah, summer in Ann Arbor with small kids and no pandemic. What a lovely place. We’ll be popping by the Juneteenth event at Ypsi on Saturday to see our neighbors in the Bichini Bia Congo Dance Theatre performance after swim lessons at Rutherford Pool. Busy weekend – and we’re even postponing Father’s Day for a couple weekends to celebrate with my visiting in-laws.

The news was busy, too. There’s some mixed signals on the state of the longest graduate students’ strike in U-M history, we may soon be able to drink alcohol at football games, and pickleball could become a rooftop amenity for a new high-rise. Also, there’s a much-heralded $50 million Toyota battery lab coming to the county that will, strangely, not create any new permanent jobs.

As I try to get some sleep before another exhausting weekend, I wish you all as much rest as you can get.

– Steve Friess, editor

GEO, UM drop unfair labor charges: The eleven-week-old graduate students’ strike seemed to enter a new phase this week as both sides abandoned their pending complaints before the Michigan Employment Relations Commission and the university dropped a breach-of-contract lawsuit, the University Record writes. The two sides have all-day bargaining sessions scheduled for tomorrow and next Friday, according to the GEO’s Twitter feed. On the other hand, MLive (paywall) reports that the union’s allegation that university “falsified grades” for the winter 2023 semester has sparked scrutiny from the Higher Learning Commission. 

Federal judge dismisses former principal’s lawsuit: Shannon Blick, formerly of Lawton Elementary, had sued AAPS for “constructively terminating” her by forcing her into a paid leave of absence in 2019, but the court determined Blick lacked evidence to support her claim she was disciplined because she is White, MLive reports (paywall). Her administrative contract expired in 2021 and was not renewed; superintendent Jeanice Swift said Blick was unfit to lead because she failed to address double billing by a janitor. Blick’s attorney says she will appeal to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

A2 sees 3 percent population decline since 2020: New census data found the city losing about 4,000 residents and Washtenaw County shrinking by 1.6 percent, MLive reports. Seven communities have grown, with Ann Arbor Twp. up 5.2 percent and Sylvan and Saline townships both up 2.6 percent. Ypsi saw the biggest decline, down 4.5 percent and dipping below 20,000 residents.

Ypsi will dip into reserves to balance budget: Federal Covid relief money gave the city a $1.3 million surplus, but the proposed 2023-24 budget added up to a $1.8 million shortfall, MLive reports. City council responded by dropping a plan to spend $125,000 to develop a non-armed emergency response alternative to police and $50,000 that would have gone to electric vehicle charging stations. The council also took back $2 million allocated in 2016 for a potential Amtrak stop that never advanced.

Study asserts college towns can reverse state population decline: Commissioned by the auto industry, it says that amping up investment in the carmakers’ fast-changing technology and harnessing the state’s higher-ed prowess could draw residents who consider themselves part of the “creative class,” Bridge Michigan reports. In a presentation at the Mackinac Policy Conference last month, the study’s author, Richard Florida, called for A2, East Lansing, and Detroit to compete with the likes of Austin and North Carolina’s Research Triangle.

Bill to allow alcohol sales at Big House advances in Lansing: The measure blitzed through a unanimous committee vote this week en route to the full state Senate, ushered along by support from Michigan’s major universities, the Detroit News reports. The bill’s sponsor, Democratic senator Sean McGann of Kalamazoo, believes fans (over twenty-one) may be able to drink at games as soon as this fall. U-M and MSU are two of the three Big Ten schools that do not allow alcohol sales in their stadiums.

Program launched to help UM football players profit: M Power will “assist the next generation of Wolverine football players as they navigate internships, mentorships and NIL, the right to license their name, image, and likeness, according to MGoBlue. Student-athletes have been permitted to profit while in school since 2021; to no one’s surprise, the bulk of big-money sponsorships and endorsements have gone to football and men’s basketball players. 

Sixteen-year-old arrested in shooting at KFC: Witnesses told police the suspect shot at a white van in the drive-through line at the franchise location on Washtenaw near U.S.-23 on Saturday evening, ClickOnDetroit reports. The Ypsilanti Township teen then ran into the restaurant where he was apprehended, while the van drove away with a flat tire. Nobody was injured. Anyone with information should call Pittsfield Township police at (734) 822-4958. 

USPS investigates busted, empty mailboxes: Two were found cut open at the Green Rd. Post Office, MLive reports. It’s unclear when the incidents occurred, but the postal service urges people who think their mail was stolen to fill out an online report or call (877) 876-2455.

Cars crash into buildings in separate incidents: On Saturday afternoon, a vehicle drove into the side of a home in the 2300 block of Yost Blvd., according to the fire department’s Facebook page. Nobody was home and the driver, a 73-year-old woman, suffered minor injuries. She told police she was struck by another car, hit a stop sign and careened into the house. Then, early Sunday, a van plowed into the back of Fraser’s Pub on Packard, taking out a wall and an HVAC unit. The driver, a 62-year-old Chelsea man whose blood-alcohol content was .280, was arrested, AAPD wrote on Facebook. No injuries were reported, but the pub closed while repairs were made to the building. It reopened today.

Help sought in search for Superior Twp. runaway: Arrayan Mahamadou, fifteen, hasn’t been seen by his family since he climbed out of his bedroom window on Saturday, according to the  Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office. He was last seen wearing black sweats, a white shirt, and a brown hoodie. To see a photo, click here. Anyone with information should call WCSO at (734) 994-2911 or the confidential tip line at (734) 973-7711.

Twenty-three streets to be resurfaced in $7.5M plan: Council approved the expenditure to start this month fixing up roads mostly in an eastside swath bounded by Washtenaw, Geddes, and Huron Pkwy. The plan also includes adding traffic-calming crosswalks on Granger between Packard and State, according to city documents. The work is expected to be completed by next year.

Council moves to upzone Plymouth and Washtenaw: The vote directs the planning commission to move ahead on rezoning the corridors for high-density “transit oriented development,” MLive reports (paywall). Developers have yet to offer large-scale plans for the TOD zones created last year near Briarwood and along W. Stadium and Maple, but councilmembers nonetheless want to move quickly to block lower-density redevelopment in the additional corridors.

Proposed Packard St. high-rise would have rooftop pickleball: Plans for an eight-story, 182-bed, all-electric building catering to U-M students were revealed at a planning commission work session on Tuesday, MLive reports (paywall). U-M alumnus Satch Chada, who is building another student apartment building on S. Main St., is seeking a zoning variance to replace a two-story duplex next to the city’s’s seven-story Baker Commons.

The office glut comes home: The pandemic prompted a sudden – and possibly permanent – exodus from working in workplaces, leaving a flood of vacancies that inspired developers have reimagined as high-end apartments, Cynthia Furlong Reynolds reports for this month’s Observer. That trend could have a tsunami effect on A2’s rental market, lifestyle, nightlife, business and residential life, and even the city’s appearance. “This is the time to reconsider the old way of doing business,” says Ed Shaffran of the Shaffran Companies. “Before Covid, 92 percent of all rentals downtown were office or retail. After Covid, I think we’ll be lucky to get to 80 percent.”

Logistics firm to bring 140 jobs, $2.35M in investment to A2: RXO Corporate Solutions LLC will lease space in Domino’s Farms for its expansion, according to a press release. RXO, which already has 900 employees in Michigan, will receive a $650,000 Michigan Business Development Grant.

$47.7M Toyota battery lab coming to York Twp: The automaker says the facility, just south of A2, will focus on testing the power sources for electric vehicles and will be staffed by thirty current employees, WLNS reports. Toyota, which is getting $1.59 million in state and local incentives for the project, says the lab is expected to be completed in 2025.

A2-based pharma firm has a promising statin substitute–and a $300M dispute: Esperion Therapeutics’ Nexletol got a boost in March from a successful clinical trial, Ken Garber writes for this month’s Observer. The New England Journal of Medicine reported that it reduced the risk of heart attack by 23 percent. Trouble is, Wall Street didn’t think the results were good enough and the Japanese pharm company Daiichi Sankyo, which had licensed the drug in Europe, is refusing to pay $300 million that Esperion says it is due for hitting an agreed-upon “milestone” in the drug’s development.

Twenty acres of forest in Scio protected by A2, county purchase: The entities are roughly splitting the $300,000 cost of the DeVine parcel along Zeeb Rd. between Jackson and Liberty, which joins  the more than 7,600 acres already permanently preserved in Ann Arbor’s Greenbelt program, according to the city.  The land sits adjacent to a ninety-five-acre farm and woodland preserve as well as another forty acres of protected forest.  Rosie Pahl Donaldson, the city’s land acquisition supervisor, notes that the property is “frequently punctuated by healthy vernal ponds ideal for amphibians.”

226-acre farm to be saved by conservation deal: The Locust Hill Farm, about 15 miles west of A2 in Freedom Twp., has been used for agriculture as far back as the 1860s, MLive reports (paywall). The Kress siblings, whose family had farmed the land since 1920, struck a deal with the Legacy Land Conservancy to protect the property from development.

Researchers develop “promising” treatment for tinnitus: Those plagued by bouts of incessant ringing in the ears will be happy to hear U-M’s Kresge Hearing Research Institute published a study in the journal JAMA Network Open that shows ways to mitigate or stop some forms. In a clinical trial, a personalized device was able to reduce tinnitus symptoms in 60 percent of participants after six weeks of treatment, according to a Michigan Medicine press release.

Juneteenth events, closures commemorate end of slavery: State, county, and city offices will be closed Monday for what the state legislature this week made Michigan’s newest state holiday, the actual anniversary of enslaved people in Texas finally learning of the end of the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865. Over the weekend, celebrations are planned across the county, from A2’s 29th annual festival at Wheeler Park on Saturday afternoon to Ypsi’s events on Saturday and Sunday in the parking lot of Puffer Reds.

Churches respond to pride-flag thefts by giving 300 away: Pastors at St. Aidan’s Episcopal and Northside Presbyterian, which share a Broadway St. building near Plymouth Rd., say their rainbow flag was torn down and thrown into the woods in April and then stolen in May, CBS Detroit reports. They stood up to bigotry by putting out free flags with a sign urging people to take one.

First members picked for reparations committee: Four of the fourteen members of the Washtenaw County’s Advisory Council on Reparations have been selected, WEMU reports. They include former Washtenaw Housing Alliance director Julie Steiner, EMU criminologist and author Gregg Barak, social worker Hazelette Crosby-Robinson, and Michigan Environmental Council CEO Conan Smith.

Pharmacometrician opens Banh Mi Street Food: Sunny Chapel has had a busy year so far, establishing a full-service clinical pharmacology consultancy called A2-Ai in space behind her first restaurant, Dave Algase reports in this month’s Observer. Banh Mi, in the Courtyard Shops, offers fast Vietnamese sandwiches and Korean noodle and rice dishes. “My love of food and the energy toward food has been building up. At some point I needed an outlet,” Chapel explains.

Ray’s Red Hots owner seeks sale: The hot dog eatery at 629 East University closed last fall, but its namesake Ray Johnston tells MLive (paywall) he’s talking with a few “serious parties” about taking it over. A handwritten “For Sale!” sign on yellow, lined notebook paper is on the front door. 

One week left to reserve rain barrels through the county: June 22 is the last day to order and pay for barrels, 275-gallon totes, tumbling composters, and other related items through the Washtenaw County Conservation District for pickup on June 24. This is the second of three sales this year, with reservations for the third opening in August. Pickup is at Growing Hope Farm, 922 W. Michigan Ave., in Ypsi., where the WCCD is also offering a rain barrel workshop.

Food Gatherers’ Summer Food Service Program starts Tuesday: The anti-hunger nonprofit is providing free daily meals for Washtenaw County kids ages 18 and under during the months when they can’t get them at school. Free meals will be available at sites in Belleville, Dexter, and Ypsi until August 18. Click here for a list of locations, dates, and hours of operation and visit the SFSP site for more information.

Jewish Family Services opens new kitchen to feed refugees: The organization recently relocated its one-room food pantry to a $1 million commercial-grade kitchen that has been added to its headquarters at 2245 S. State St., MLive reports. JFS leaders plan to use the kitchen to make Meals on Wheels meals as well as to make culturally appropriate meals for refugees.

Lori’s Hands chapter turns one: The program, run by the Michigan Health Endowment Fund and EMU, assigns student volunteers from EMU, Wayne State, Washtenaw Community College, and U-M Dearborn to provide in-home assistance to older people with chronic illnesses in Wayne and Washtenaw counties. The Metro Detroit chapter of Lori’s Hands, one of three in the U.S., is recruiting college students to volunteer or intern through the program.

By Jennifer Taylor

Friday: Join Leslie Science and Nature Center staff on a “New Moon Night Hike” to celebrate the alignment of Earth, the moon, and the sun. Conduct experiments on the trail to discover how different animals see in the dark and visit some of LSNC’s nocturnal animals to learn how they survive. Campfire and stories to follow. 7:30 to 9 p.m., LSNC, 1831 Traver. $5 (kids age 2 & under, free). Preregistration required here. (734) 995–5439.

Saturday: Watch the Monitor Base Ball Club of Chelsea and the Kalamazoo Continentals play baseball using 1860s-era rules. Preceded at 11:30 a.m. by the Monitors’ annual “Tallies for Charity,” an all-comers scrimmage to raise funds for a charity TBA. 1 p.m., Timbertown Park, Sibley Rd. (west off Main St. north of downtown), Chelsea. Free.

Sunday: Catch live music on two stages along with other activities at the Ann Arbor Summer Festival’s “Top of the Park.” In the Kidzone: chalk drawing with popular local street artist David Zinn (all day), and STEM activities (5 p.m.) with the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum. On the Power Center Lawn: swing dancing (5:30 p.m.) with instruction. In the Annex tent: beat-making competition (5:30 p.m.). On the O&W Grove Stage: Jade Nicole (5 p.m.), a Detroit-based R&B singer-songwriter, and classical crossover duo Kuwento Mizik (6 p.m.). On the Rackham Stage: kid-friendly hip-hop and funk band Fyütch (7 p.m.), and lush R&B by Na Bonsai (8:30 p.m.). 5 to 10 p.m.

See the Observer’s online calendar for many more local events. 

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